Differing Studies in Alamance Co. Racial Profiling Case

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Two university professors hired by the U.S. Department of Justice to analyze traffic stops by the Alamance County Sheriff's Office say statistical data conclusively shows deputies there are racially profiling Latino drivers.

The two analyses were filed in U.S. District Court last week as part of a federal civil rights complaint against Sheriff Terry Johnson. To conduct the studies, the experts reviewed citation and arrest records from 2008 through Oct. 2013, as well as direct observations of deputies pulling over drivers along the county's roads.

Psychologist John Lamberth concluded that Johnson's deputies cited Latinos for violations at a rate more than six times higher than whites - the biggest racial disparity he had ever observed in the United States.

The Alamance County Sheriff's Department said they have strong questions about the credibility and methodology of the study. They said the study only looked at three highways in the county, and included areas that aren't in the department's primary jurisdiction.

Johnson's lawyer, Chuck Kitchen, points to a third study commissioned by the defense and completed at Duke University that concluded there was no racial profiling.

Johnson, a Republican, has claimed the federal lawsuit against him is politically motivated.